'ATMANIRBHAR' SHRIMP: BETTER TASTE OF SURVIVAL?

Indigenous species, domestic market can cushion Indian shrimp farmers from US tariffs

- N. Madhavan [e-mail]

Balasubramaniam V., a farmer in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district, with a ‘check tray’ at his farm. The tray is used to check shrimp health.

(N. MADHAVAN)

In 2018, when Venkatapathy Raju, a software engineer, chose to give up his promising job in the IT sector and join his father’s shrimp business, things were looking good. Bhimavaram, his hometown in Andhra Pradesh, was fast becoming the nerve centre for shrimp farming. The land was virgin and water aplenty. A high shrimp survival rate of over 80% meant steady output, which was lapped up by exporters at good prices. Over the next seven years, Raju expanded the farm size from 100 to 650 acres.

2025 turned out to be different. US President Donald Trump imposed 50% duty on Indian goods and that has hit shrimp exports hard. About 36% of Indian shrimp, and most of Bhimavaram’s production, are exported to the US. Farm gate prices have since fallen by up to 20%.

Raju, nevertheless, hasn’t given up. “My passion for farming shrimp has kept me from questioning the decision to leave IT,” he said.

Shrimp exports, at $5.2 billion, accounted for 70% of India’s $7.4 billion seafood exports in 2024-25. The US is the biggest market and India caters to 40% of the country’s demand annually. Other major buyers are China, the European Union (EU), South-East Asian countries, and Japan. Andhra Pradesh is the largest cultivator of shrimp, accounting for 78% of India’s overall output of 1.1 million tonnes (mt) in 2024-25.

“The high tariff has made us uncompetitive,” said Pavan Kumar, national president, Seafood Exporters Association of India and a shrimp exporter based in Visakhapatnam. Only exporters with longterm contracts with big retail chains are supplying, and that, too, at lower volumes. Spot buyers, who lift major volumes, have moved away from India to countries such as Ecuador and Indonesia, he added.